# What Are We Waiting For?

<http://kernest.com/blog/archive/what-are-we-waiting-for>

- Host: [kernest.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/kernest.com/)
- Saved: May 27, 2009 (2009-05-27T16:35:14Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/02939e068e29/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/02939e068e29.json

## What Jamie wrote

“Thus, as we consider integrating real fonts into our designs, we must navigate between browsers that support @font-face now (Safari), those that will do so soon (Opera, Chrome, Firefox), and the one that possibly never will (IE, with a dwindling but still overwhelming market share).”  - Jeffrey Zeldman

Zeldman’s right. I also see a bigger issue.

@font-face still won’t be supported on the Kindle, the iPhone, the Blackberry, the XBox, Android, etc. All of those devices and browsers provide a very different font rendering experience than Safari on a Mac.

Even that font rendering experience is different than Firefox on Ubuntu or even Internet Explorer on Windows (pick a version).

If the goal is rock solid visual consistency across all - web designers lost the battle long ago. 

If the goal instead is to provide the best possible experience within the constraints of a given browser environment, then….

There isn’t anything technical preventing web sites from specifying fonts that are native to specific platforms within the regular font-family CSS declaration.

I’m optimistic about the opportunity  @font-face provides to type designers and web designers. 

I also see very little reason Arial or Times New Roman should ever be listed first in font-family listing.

We don’t need to wait until Firefox 3.5 to spec Jazz LET or Big Caslon. They ship with Macs today.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Same host

- [\[Back to\] The Future of Typography - Presentation Notes](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6cde0ee6b39c/) (kernest.com, May 17, 2009)
- [Fonts for my website](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/9b18b6c89119/) (kernest.com, December 5, 2010)
- [Kernest](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d4ab0aca3548/) (kernest.com, January 14, 2011)

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- [Minnov8 Gang Podcast - Episode 37](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/75adb95be311/) (minnov8.com, May 27, 2009)
- [RIP! in Minneapolis -- May 28.](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e3ec76f799d3/) (lessig.org, May 27, 2009)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://kernest.com/blog/archive/what-are-we-waiting-for